Here I will post some short pieces on Sarala Mahabharata. Sarala Das is known as the "aadikavi" (the first poet) of Oriya Literature. He lived and wrote in the 15th Century. Mahabharat is his magnum opus. The episodes in Sarala's Mahabharat are significantly different from those in Vyasa's (Sanskrit) Mahabharat.

Friday, June 3, 2016

SHANTANU AND GANGA

Shantanu was a great devotee of
Bhagawan Shiva. Sarala spoke of him as a “rushi
(“rishi”, sage)”. He was so emerged in Shiva consciousness that he would dress
himself like him and then even the gods were confused. One day the unbelievable
of the unbelievable happened – goddess Ganga was confused. She had taken birth
in the mortal world as the daughter of Nirghata. Shiva had disappeared from the
mountains of Kailash and where he was engaged in meditation, she did not know.
She was waiting for him to emerge out of his meditation so that she could marry
him. When she saw Shantanu dressed like Shiva, she thought he was Shiva and
told her father to marry her to him. During the wedding ritual itself she
realized her mistake. She soon thought of a plan to free herself from that
marriage. This story entitled “Ganga” occurs in this blog, posted on May 6, 08.

One of the many vicious things Ganga
did to Shantanu in order to exasperate him was force him to abandon the path of
dharma. She was very beautiful, sensual and seductive and he fell for her
charms. He was completely fulfilled in her. She gave herself to him completely
during their union but her heart was not in it; offering him sexual pleasure was
her way of controlling him. She knew his weakness and exploited it. She would
deny him when he was extremely aroused and force him into sex act on days the
shastras did not permit it. Shantanu used to observe twelve bratas and seventy two upavasas
(both roughly speaking, “ritual fasts”) steadfastly. Sex, which was believed to
be physically and spiritually polluting, was not sanctioned on those sacred
days. Sin accrues to one who indulges in
it on those days. Quite a few today do have this belief.

Shantanu yielded to her and gave
up observing ritual fasts on auspicious days. There was just one exception: ekadasi, an upavasa dedicated to the Supreme god, Narayana. On an ekadasi Ganga asked Shantanu why he was
so keen on observing ekadasi and why again
with such dedication. One attains mukti by observance of the sacred ekadasi brata and Narayana is pleased
with someone who observes this brata
in the right spirit, said Shantanu. Samsara
or worldly life is nothing but an unfathomable river and dharma is the only
boat that can ferry one across, he told her. Worldly life is the condition of
being firmly bound up without ropes; what bind one up are egotism, desire,
attachment, hatred and anger, etc. and only the grace of Narayana could give
one mukti. Therefore, my beloved, said the ascetic king Shantanu to Ganga, let
us together observe the extremely sacred ekadasi
brata and attain Vaikuntha, the abode of Narayana.

But that was not the way of the
householder and the king, replied Ganga. Once he opted for kingship and the
life of a householder, he could no longer follow asceticism. That would not be dharma.
Upavasa was not his karma (here,
right action). Kingship is a great and noble duty: “ati utakarma” (extremely noble) in Sarala’s words. Ksatriya dharma
was not in consonance with asceticism. A king could not afford to fast, said
Ganga. He must think of the welfare of his kingdom all the while, punish the wicked,
protect his virtuous subjects, support the ashramas, secure his kingdom from
enemies, remain in constant readiness to face any attack and must also wage war
in order to add territory to his kingdom. You are noble, wise and
discriminating, said Ganga to Shantanu, why then are you indulging in observing
ekadasi (tu mahavijna jebe atu maharishi / raja pade basi kimpa bhaju ekadasi – (roughly) if you are wise, o
sage / being the king, why are you observing ekadasi)

Shantanu could say nothing; she
sounded entirely reasonable. He gave in to her logic, to her flawless
explication of rajadharma (king’s duty).
She did not speak to him like a guru would to her sishya; she spoke to him as a
friend would to a friend. The sage-king gave up the ekadasi fast and yielded to her logic, her seduction and her
ethereal beauty.

He did not know that her words
were untruthful and her motives, dark. She wanted the king to stray from the
path of virtue. He had no way to know her intentions; humans are not bestowed
with this ability to look into someone’s mind and know whether his words were
true or deceptive. They go by faith. Shantanu did not know that his wife’s
words were dishonest. We know what he did not know because Sarala tells us.

Why did Ganga stoop so low as to
use jnana (roughly, “knowledge”) as a means to make a trusting person stray from
a life of dharma? Sarala does not tell us explicitly. But going by the spirit
of his narrative we could say that gods and goddesses find it easy to control those
who do not follow dharma than those who do. No matter how powerful, gods and
goddesses are powerless before the person who is steadfast in dharma. So they
would try to make him or her lose perspective and sense of discrimination and
abandon dharma. This was what Ganga did to Shatanu. She tempted him with her
beauty and misleaded him with her dharma talk.

Sarala’s Shantanu was basically a
moral person. He did not marry after Ganga left him. She was his only wife. He
did not crave for any woman after she was gone. And he never pined for Ganga.
It was as though he had slipped into a phase of intoxication and when Ganga was
gone, with her, that phase was gone.

Shantanu, the man the poet Sarala
referred to repeatedly as rushi, had
one flaw – a tragic flaw, which seriously affected the Kuru family. None of
Shantanu’s sons could give him a grandchild. The Kuru lineage, strictly
speaking, stopped with them. Dhritarashtra and Pandu were born from a person
who was outside, in a strict sense, of the Kuru family. Vyasa was Satyavati’s
son, but in Sarala Mahabharata she
was not part of the core Kuru family. She was sage Pareshwara’s wife, not king
Shantanu’s.

Shantanu’s flaw was his fatal
attraction for the beautiful Ganga. He seems to have fallen for her when she
came into his sight. Right when the wedding rituals were going on, he got to
know that Ganga had made a serious mistake in marrying him. He did not try to
help her get out of an unfortunate situation; instead he chose to abide by her
clearly unreasonable demands for the continuance of their marriage. He knew she
was goddess Ganga, who was waiting to marry Shiva. And Shiva was his ista (the most desired one – here, god),
he was his devotee. Coveting a woman whose heart was in his ista was like coveting one’s guru’s
consort. His passion for Ganga blinded him and he lost his sense of judgment. The
price he paid was very heavy indeed.